Forest-based betel leaf and betel nut farming of the Khasia indigenous People in Bangladesh: approach to biodiversity conservation in Lawachara National Park(LNP)

An exploratory survey was conducted among the Khasia living in Lawachara National Parkt （LNP） to investigate their depend- ency on the protected area （PA） for livelihoods, betel leaf hill farming, traditional forest conservation and perceptions of the PA, Field data were collected by interviewing 48 household heads from two villages （punjis） located inside the LNP and visiting their farms.： The economy of the Khasia was forest-based. They were largely dependent on betel leaf hill farming in LNP and nearly 71% of their mean annual income was de- rived from this irrespective of farmer category. On average, about 14% of the incomes of the poorer farmers came from forest produce followed by 10% and 6% for medium and rich farmers respectively. Hills and forests were the foundations of their lives and livelihoods, and LNP was the life-blood of Khasia survival. As a sustainable production system, this farming practice plays a vital role in conserving biodiversity in LNP and might be replicated elsewhere.

Humus horizon development during natural forest succession process in the Polish Carpathians

As a result of socio-economic changes and land abandonment,the main ecological driver of the Carpathian landscape is the progression of the natural forest succession process.Thus,aspects of this process have become worthy of attention,especially in the context of carbon sequestration and the management of protected areas.Soil processes,especially within the topsoil,are some of the most susceptible to change,due to the accumulation of organic matter during such land-use transformations.The purposes of this study were to investigate the differences in topsoil development using the A Horizon Development Index(ADI)and to study the composition of humic substances and advanced organic matter humification in different land-use areas in selected Carpathian national parks,i.e.Bieszczady,Magura and Pieniny National Parks in southern Poland.Additionally,a goal of this study was to compare the ADI and the spectroscopic coefficients of humic substances as indicators of the degree of humus horizon shaping as well as advanced organic matter humification.In total,ten transects were selected,each consisting of three different land-use areas:semi-natural meadow,successional forest and old-growth forest.Soil colour was determined in fresh and air-dried samples using the Munsell colour chart.In air-dried soil samples p H,soil texture,total organic carbon and total nitrogen were measured.Humic substances were extracted and further characterized by UV-VIS spectroscopy.The ADI confirmed the influence of natural forest succession on soil colour darkening and the development of the uppermost soil layer.Spectroscopic analyses of humic substances showed two different patterns depending on soil depth.In the 0–10 cm layer,natural forest succession reduced the rate of the humification process and decreased the degree of maturity of fulvic acids;in the 10–20 cm layer,it led to an increase in the rate of the humification process and a decrease in the content of humic and fulvic acids at the beginning of the transformation.The comparison of two different indicators of soil development–the ADI and the spectroscopic coefficients of humic substances(Q_(4/6),Q_(2/4),Q_(2/3),Δlog K)–indicated that these indexes are based on different features of soil and cannot be used interchangeably.

The impact of burning on lion Panthera leo habitat choice in an African savanna

Camivores play a central role in ecosystem processes by exerting top-down control, while fire exerts bottom-up con- trol in ecosystems throughout the world, yet, little is known about how fire affects short-term carnivore distributions across the landscape. Through the use of a long-term data set we investigated the distribution of lions, during the daytime, in relation to burned areas in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. We found that lions avoid burned areas despite the fact that herbivores, their prey, are attracted to burned areas. Prey attraction, however, likely results from the reduction in cover caused by burning, that may thereby decrease lion hunting success. Lions also do not preferentially utilize the edges of burned areas over unburned areas de- spite the possibility that edges would combine the benefit of cover with proximity to abundant prey. Despite the fact that lions avoid burned areas, lion territory size and reproductive success were not affected by the proportion of the territory burned each year. Therefore, burning does not seem to reduce lion fitness perhaps because of the heterogeneity of burned areas across the landscape or because it is possible that when hunting at night lions visit burned areas despite their daytime avoidance of these ar- eas .